You can have all different types of fun in LA sushi restaurants. We have serious omakase places featuring the best fish you’ll ever eat, casual go-tos that know your order before you walk in, and crazy party spots where sake bombs, drunk reality stars, and mayo-dunked specialty rolls reign supreme. But then there’s Sushi Note, a neighborhood sushi bar in Sherman Oaks that’s created its own category of fun.

The fun at Sushi Note doesn’t come from eating $2 nigiri or singing the Y.M.C.A. with a bunch of people you met 20 minutes ago. It comes from being a place that puts drinking great wine and eating great sushi on an equal level of importance.

Combining two of god’s greatest gifts isn’t new, but walking into this tiny Ventura Blvd. spot feels like a completely original experience. Sushi Note is both a sushi restaurant and a neighborhood wine bar that you can hang out in all night. There’s a main bar up front where the chefs are at work, a row of wooden booths along the wall where you can eat with a group, and a tinier bar in the back where the wine happens. The design is sharp and clean, but not in a fussy kind of way. It’s as if you’re spending the night in an upscale Japanese thermal spa, and Sushi Note is the back room where the owners pour wine and serve sushi all night.

Jakob Layman

All of Sushi Note’s menu is offered a la carte, but if it’s your first time or you’re looking to make the most of your life, do the omakase. For $80, you get ten pieces of perfectly-cut sushi (everything from red snapper to otoro to a gravlax sushi that will ruin all other gravlax for you), edamame, miso soup, a starter, and a hand roll. That should be enough to fill you up, but plan to order a few other dishes simply because they’re too good to miss. The black cod is reminiscent of a dish at a certain other famous sushi restaurant, but at $15, it’s a third of the price and just as good. There’s also a sauteed mushroom appetizer we’d drive over the hill for during Friday rush hour on a flat tire.

As far as the wine goes, you can order a bottle or a glass of your choosing, or let the sommelier course out a tasting. This is pretty common practice among restaurants serious about wine, but Sushi Note does it in a way that’s personal and unpretentious. They want you to know why that chablis tastes so good with your seabream, and they’re going to explain it to you in a way you can relate to and understand.

If walking out of a restaurant feeling like you’ve learned something about wine and sushi isn’t your idea of fun, go to Sushi Note right now and try it for yourself.

Food Rundown

Jakob Layman

Whole Note Omakase

At $80, this isn’t the world’s most affordable omakase. But after eating ten pieces of high-quality sushi, edamame, miso soup, a starter, and a hand roll, you’ll feel like this meal has earned its price point. You don’t have to get this every time you come here, but it’s a good idea for first-timers or anyone seeking a higher level of existence.

Jakob Layman

Kinoko Itame

Even if you get the full omakase, this sauteed mushroom appetizer needs to still hit the table. It’s just mushrooms in a balsamic soy sauce, but we’d still go to Sushi Note if this was the only thing they served.

Jakob Layman

Black Cod

Baked in soy sauce, sake, and ginger, this dish will remind you of a similar one at a certain other famous sushi restaurant, and that’s a compliment. Also, it’s only $15. This is a great appetizer to share on a share.

Jakob Layman

Spicy Yellowtail Biscotti

Sushi Note has a few biscottis (their version of crispy rice) on their menu, but the spicy yellowtail is our favorite. The rice itself is perfectly crisp, but not dry and the yellowtail on top is actually spicy.